as a great sin." (5) (1) See Doane's Bible Myths, p. 306. (2) From The Great Law, of religious origins: by W. Williamson (1899), p. 177. (3) The Golden Bough, vol. ii, p. 79. (4) Natural and Moral History of the Indies. London (1604). (5) See Markham's Rites and laws of the Incas, p. 27. Moving from Peru to China (instead of 'from China to Peru') we find that "the Chinese pour wine (a very general substitute for blood) on a straw image of Confucius, and then all present drink of it, and taste the sacrificial victim, in order to participate in the grace of Confucius." (Here again the Corn and Wine are blended in one rite.) And of Tartary Father Grueber thus testifies: "This only I do affirm, that the devil so mimics the Catholic Church there, that although no European or Christian has ever been there, still in all essential things they agree so completely with the Roman Church, as even to celebrate the Host with bread and wine: with my own eyes I have seen it." (1) These few instances are sufficient to show the extraordinarily wide diffusion of Totem-sacraments and Eucharistic rites all over the world. (1) For these two quotations see Jevons' Introduction to the History of Religion, pp. 148 and 219. V. FOOD AND VEGETATION MAGIC I have wandered, in pursuit of Totems and the Eucharist, some way from the astronomical thread of Chapters II and III, and now it would appear that in order to understand religious origins we must wander still farther. The chapters mentioned were largely occupied with Sungods and astronomical phenomena, but now we have to consider an earlier period when there were no definite forms of gods, and when none but the vaguest astronomical knowledge existed. Sometimes in historical matters it is best and safest to move thus backwards in Time, from the things recent and fairly well known to things more ancient and less known. In this way we approach more securely to some understanding of the dim and remote past.